Old computer as workstation

[technix]

I wonder among all your surviving workstations, what is your oldest? By surviving, I mean the machine being able to handle some day to day work: run your development tools, build your projects in reasonable time, and stream YouTube with at least 1080p resolution (don't count this anymore.) I remember a few members complaining about slow computers, let's just compare them and maybe figure out a way to get it smooth again.

My oldest system is a recently restored, maxed out Dell Latitude D620 laptop. Specs:
* CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7600, 2.33GHz 2C/2T (maxed out)
* RAM: DDR2-667 3GB (maxed out)
* Chipset: Intel 945PM + ICH7M
* Graphics: nVidia Quadro NVS 110M, 64MB VRAM, force installed GeForce Go 7300 drivers (same G72M chip)
* Storage: Kingston SSD 240GB (This makes all the difference)
* OS: Windows 10 Pro amd64 (yes it works perfectly, 64 bit version too.)

As long as Windows Defender is not scanning the downloads, this machine is actually fairly snappy. Eclipse and GCC have been smooth so far, although it is really not my main workstation. I haven't tested KiCad yet, but other than the 3D view I don't see anything potentially lagging.

I had this laptop for more than 10 years already - was it bought back in 2004 or 2005? During the years things have fell apart, but thanks to the used parts market I could fix it and upgrade it to the max without paying too much money. This is my only Windows machine now (since Ubuntu does not have the appropriate graphics driver for the old GPU any more.) My specific laptop have been maxed out on almost all its aspects - maximum RAM, top CPU the chipset would accept, 802.11ac wireless, HSDPA (it does have appropriate antennae and SIM card slot) and replaced the dead optical drive with a secondary hard disk drive.

[Nusa]

You're setting the bar pretty high, which probably means you're simply too young to remember. I've got plenty of working stuff in my pile that couldn't meet those specs brand new. Especially the 1080p resolution on 4:3 ratio monitors.

[technix]

You're setting the bar pretty high, which probably means you're simply too young to remember. I've got plenty of working stuff in my pile that couldn't meet those specs brand new. Especially the 1080p resolution on 4:3 ratio monitors.

I have removed that bar. Any chance?

[james_s]

Until just a few years ago I was using a 10 year old Pentium4 running WinXP as my main PC. I replaced it with a core i7 I built running Win7 which I expect to use for at least 10 years. I think the core i7 PC I have on my desk at work is about 7 years old, runs Linux, I'm not aware of any plans to upgrade. PCs really have hit a plateau when it comes to productivity stuff, I expect the vast majority of upgrades that take place will be replacing failed hardware. 

[technix]

Until just a few years ago I was using a 10 year old Pentium4 running WinXP as my main PC. I replaced it with a core i7 I built running Win7 which I expect to use for at least 10 years. I think the core i7 PC I have on my desk at work is about 7 years old, runs Linux, I'm not aware of any plans to upgrade. PCs really have hit a plateau when it comes to productivity stuff, I expect the vast majority of upgrades that take place will be replacing failed hardware.

Do expect to replace processor, motherboard and RAM in one go of any of them fails though. Those all have been revised recently. Or search through the second hand market. Also you may want to bite the bullet and upgrade to Windows 10, for Windows 7 will not be receiving security patches in time like Spectre and Meltdown. Just use something like O&O ShutUp10 and/or SpyBot Anti-Beacon to snuff out the telemetry.

For me my main work is either on my Xeon E3 Haswell Hackintosh workstation (I do like how Apple dealt with mixed SSD/HDD systems as well as high pixel density displays,) or my dual Xeon E5 Sandy Bridge HPC workstation (pretty much for big parallel jobs only like bulk compiling - the Haswell E3 have better IPC and higher clock speed for single-threaded job but only 1/4 the core count.)

[technix]

My oldest system is a recently restored, maxed out Dell Latitude D620 laptop. Specs:

* RAM: DDR2-667 3GB (maxed out)

This system supports 4GB RAM.

Dell never released a BIOS update to properly support the extra RAM (or SATA AHCI mode) even for 64-bit OS, despite the chipset support. That machine is only qualified for Windows XP and only Windows XP, so all feature Windows XP does not support out of the box is left out - 4GB RAM, AHCI and potentially more. I had it on 4GB before as ARK said but it always only supported 3.25G, so no point keeping one of my 2GB sticks tied up while one of my 1GB sticks is sleeping in the parts bin.

[Nusa]

Well, the oldest I actually use occasionally is probably my 800 Mhz Slot-A Athlon, on a motherboard with bios dated 1998. Updated to Win-98se, and is occasionally useful for retro games, accessing floppy disks, and anything DOS-based. Real hardware is still better than DOS emulations.

[technix]

Well, the oldest I actually use occasionally is probably my 800 Mhz Slot-A Athlon, on a motherboard with bios dated 1998. Updated to Win-98se, and is occasionally useful for retro games, accessing floppy disks, and anything DOS-based. Real hardware is still better than DOS emulations.

Have you considered virtual machines on modern hardware? Not DOS emulators like DOSBox, but virtual machines like VMware, Virtualbox or Hyper-V.

[Zero999]

I wonder among all your surviving workstations, what is your oldest? By surviving, I mean the machine being able to handle some day to day work: run your development tools, build your projects in reasonable time, and stream YouTube with at least 1080p resolution (don't count this anymore.) I remember a few members complaining about slow computers, let's just compare them and maybe figure out a way to get it smooth again.

My oldest system is a recently restored, maxed out Dell Latitude D620 laptop. Specs:
* CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7600, 2.33GHz 2C/2T (maxed out)
* RAM: DDR2-667 3GB (maxed out)
* Chipset: Intel 945PM + ICH7M
* Graphics: nVidia Quadro NVS 110M, 64MB VRAM, force installed GeForce Go 7300 drivers (same G72M chip)
* Storage: Kingston SSD 240GB (This makes all the difference)
* OS: Windows 10 Pro amd64 (yes it works perfectly, 64 bit version too.)

As long as Windows Defender is not scanning the downloads, this machine is actually fairly snappy. Eclipse and GCC have been smooth so far, although it is really not my main workstation. I haven't tested KiCad yet, but other than the 3D view I don't see anything potentially lagging.

I had this laptop for more than 10 years already - was it bought back in 2004 or 2005? During the years things have fell apart, but thanks to the used parts market I could fix it and upgrade it to the max without paying too much money. This is my only Windows machine now (since Ubuntu does not have the appropriate graphics driver for the old GPU any more.) My specific laptop have been maxed out on almost all its aspects - maximum RAM, top CPU the chipset would accept, 802.11ac wireless, HSDPA (it does have appropriate antennae and SIM card slot) and replaced the dead optical drive with a secondary hard disk drive.

I use an old computer, with a similar spec' at home. I ditched Windows awhile ago and just run PC Linux now. I agree about the SSD. I do have a 1TB mechanical drive, but it's still in its box, as I still have >75% space left on the SSD.

The days of having to upgrade the PC every couple of years, just to run the latest basic productivity software and use the Internet are gone.

[Nusa]

Well, the oldest I actually use occasionally is probably my 800 Mhz Slot-A Athlon, on a motherboard with bios dated 1998. Updated to Win-98se, and is occasionally useful for retro games, accessing floppy disks, and anything DOS-based. Real hardware is still better than DOS emulations.

Have you considered virtual machines on modern hardware? Not DOS emulators like DOSBox, but virtual machines like VMware, Virtualbox or Hyper-V.

Why would I do that? Old DOS games are quirky enough without me having to decide whether something is a bug in the game or a poorly implemented or missing feature in the virtual 8086 mode or the emulation of peripherals. Plus I don't have to go find a game-port to usb adapter.

I spend plenty of time on modern hardware and I don't feel the need to try to do everything on one machine.

[james_s]

I never had much luck playing older games in VMs. DosBox is great but that's the only one that seems to work well. Nothing quite beats original vintage hardware if you have it.

[Ampera]

In theory the oldest machine I have that meets my current workload is a 1993-1995 Am486-DX4-100 machine (120Mhz overclocked). I am practicing my C programming skills on it, and ability to figure out complicated programming methods with it. However, I have recently transferred it's practical workload to an early Prescott-era Celeron Toshiba Satellite. (2.6 ghz, so we're talking a blazing inferno here)
It is currently running Windows 98SE as it fits my workload better than XP or Win2K.

[technix]

Don't you throw modern workloads at your old machines? I have the latest Windows 10, Eclipse Oxygen on Java 9, as well as GCC 7 on there... Except Windows 10 it runs the same workloads and some as my main workstations.

[Ampera]

Don't you throw modern workloads at your old machines? I have the latest Windows 10, Eclipse Oxygen on Java 9, as well as GCC 7 on there... Except Windows 10 it runs the same workloads and some as my main workstations.

The oldest machine I use for strictly modern workloads is my dual Opteron single core IBM EServer XSeries 325 from 2004.
I also have a 2011 Phenom II X4 945 machine I use as a HTPC with a GTX 580 Classified.

Besides that most of my machines I have built in the last 2 years have been designed for legacy workloads like games.

[technix]

Don't you throw modern workloads at your old machines? I have the latest Windows 10, Eclipse Oxygen on Java 9, as well as GCC 7 on there... Except Windows 10 it runs the same workloads and some as my main workstations.

The oldest machine I use for strictly modern workloads is my dual Opteron single core IBM EServer XSeries 325 from 2004.
I also have a 2011 Phenom II X4 945 machine I use as a HTPC with a GTX 580 Classified.

Besides that most of my machines I have built in the last 2 years have been designed for legacy workloads like games.

Oof I don't really have a "legacy workload machine" actually. I just spin up virtual machines if I need legacy software, especially since I have that HPC workstation. I have a set of common legacy base software set in the form of ready to use virtual machine images in my storage server, and it takes literally seconds to copy over to either my HPC or my main workstation and boot up. Actually that HPC machine was for once my virtualized main home server, and it still have its VM-rated big storage array and 128GB of RAM. (Have you thought of spinning up 40 instances Windows 98SE and see CIH take them down one by one?)

I have 5 computers in my room: the oldest is the Windows laptop above, then my quad-core storage server/router, then my MacBook Pro which is my main travel machine, and then the massive dual Xeon E5 workstation and finally my Xeon E3 Hackintosh workstation.

[PA4TIM]

My most modern one is a compaq 610 laptop with a intel duo core. Running Linux (and a small partition with W7 (that came with it)
My schematic viewer, eprom programmer, LA etc laptop is a beautiful Toshiba Tecra with a Pentium M and somewhere around 800MB memory. And with RS232 ! Running Linux and XP. I love the keyboard and display shape. Ideal for pdf reading. Also the potentiometer to set the volume.

[Bicurico]

Couldn't resist... the topic mentions old workstation!

I have one Silicon Graphics Indy and two O2. Full with all accessories like QIC150 tape, DAT tape, etc.

I used to have two SGi Iris when I was single. I literally used to turn them on to heat my work room in the winter! Then I met my wife and the two Iris had to go.

I keep one O2 under my desk and turn it on regularly. It is is a great OS and the fact that there is no Irix emulator makes them exotic machines.

We used them with our CAD/CAM software and I still have the licenses. Looking at the software now, after 20 years, is a laugh. It really sucks now and one wonders how cars were developed and produced on such limited systems, which never the less were the best and most expensive machines around.

The O2 even has  SoftWindows installed, a Win95 emulator!

Cheers,
Vitor

[jmelson]

Well, I have a system that was in use until last year, when I replaced it with a Beagle Bone.  It ran my laser photoplotter, through an ISA-bus DMA card.  That's why it didn't get updated.
It has a 100 MHz IBM/Cyrix CPU, essentially an 80486 replacement, and ran Win95 (or is it 3.1?)

Anyway, I was getting real antsy that it would break, so I got the Beagle's PRU to emulate the DMA card, and it works great.

So, anyway, that old system still works, and has the only working copy of some really old electronic CAD packages that we used back in the 1990's.

Jon

[Halcyon]

I wonder among all your surviving workstations, what is your oldest? By surviving, I mean the machine being able to handle some day to day work

I actually have two, one is in a cupboard, but if I pulled it out and plugged it in, it would still work no problems. That one is a Pentium III 450 MHz machine running Windows XP. It has a  Supermicro P6SBA motherboard (with the good old Intel 440BX chipset) and I think 384 MB RAM and a Voodoo II 3D accelerator card.

My "main" old machine is a HP 6710b laptop that I use almost every day. It has an Intel Core2 Duo 2.1 GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and runs Windows XP. The only thing I've upgraded is the hard disk to an SSD drive. The battery is long gone and no longer holds a charge for anything more than a minute or two, but otherwise it runs surprisingly well despite being banged around for the last 11-12 years or so.

[Ampera]

Don't you throw modern workloads at your old machines? I have the latest Windows 10, Eclipse Oxygen on Java 9, as well as GCC 7 on there... Except Windows 10 it runs the same workloads and some as my main workstations.

The oldest machine I use for strictly modern workloads is my dual Opteron single core IBM EServer XSeries 325 from 2004.
I also have a 2011 Phenom II X4 945 machine I use as a HTPC with a GTX 580 Classified.

Besides that most of my machines I have built in the last 2 years have been designed for legacy workloads like games.

Oof I don't really have a "legacy workload machine" actually. I just spin up virtual machines if I need legacy software, especially since I have that HPC workstation. I have a set of common legacy base software set in the form of ready to use virtual machine images in my storage server, and it takes literally seconds to copy over to either my HPC or my main workstation and boot up. Actually that HPC machine was for once my virtualized main home server, and it still have its VM-rated big storage array and 128GB of RAM. (Have you thought of spinning up 40 instances Windows 98SE and see CIH take them down one by one?)

I have 5 computers in my room: the oldest is the Windows laptop above, then my quad-core storage server/router, then my MacBook Pro which is my main travel machine, and then the massive dual Xeon E5 workstation and finally my Xeon E3 Hackintosh workstation.

It's a bit of a curse of a need to have everything be period accurate to a degree. It's more of a hobby for me to build these old computers, as it's a way for me to be a high-powered enthusiast, but not have to spend grands on high-power hardware by today's standards.

[thermistor-guy]

I use a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop, bought in 2007, daily for sysadmin tasks and occasional netflix viewing.

I've upgraded the processor to a T7600, replaced the keyboard; HDD; and optical drive once each, installed 4 GB memory, and run 64-bit Linux on it. I've added an external VGA monitor, an old NEC LCD1550V, which I found in the street.

Considering the use and the travel it has endured, it's proven to be a reliable machine.

[dryjoints]

You class Core 2 Duo as "old"? Wow...  you must be VERY young.

[Ampera]

I am noticing some newish people here. Welcome!

[NiHaoMike]

If the laptop has an Expresscard slot, add a (cheap) GPU and 1080p will be no problem, since video playback is almost all GPU nowadays. Of course, if watching videos is all you need 1080p for, a Raspberry Pi will be a far cheaper solution.

I still have a Core 2 Duo laptop that I got for college and it will play 1080p no problem. It has an 8600 GPU in it, so one generation newer. And that's literally the generation that added VDPAU. Not using it for anything right now, but I'm thinking of adding a dual gigabit NIC where the second hard drive would go and turning it into a dedicated packet sniffer.

Now I wonder if a Pi Zero could possibly be programmed to work similar to those USB to HDMI adapters but with more "smarts" inside. Could be a real boon not only for retro computers but also for adding video output to routers and other embedded systems that have USB.

The oldest working PC I still have is some really old Celeron M laptop. It has built in Gigabit along with a Gigabit PCMCIA card, so I could use it as a backup router.

[GreyWoolfe]

The oldest I have are 2 no name surplus XP era workstations with Intel motherboards that are Pentium D 3.4 Ghz, 4 Gb ram, add on dual DVI 256 Mb video card-1 running Win10 Pro 32 bit and Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon 64 bit on the other because my curiosity is piqued enough to finally look at Linux.  My daily driver is a 2010 vintage HP Z210 SFF workstation running a Pentium G850 2.6 Ghz, 8 Gb ram running Win10 Pro 64 bit.

EDIT: forgot to mention my $47.50 HP Elitebook 8530p laptop with a Core 2 Duo T9550 @ 2.7 Ghz and 4 Gb ram that I picked up from the surplus store.  Added a hard drive and Win10 pro 32 bit.  A volume license has its uses